Meg Griffin
Megan "Meg" Griffin is the oldest child of Peter and Lois Griffin. She has two brothers; Chris and Stewie. Background Meg lives in the fictional town of Quahog, Rhode Island, where she attends James Woods High School as a junior. Meg is constantly seen trying desperately to be part of the "cool crowd." When Family Guy debuted in 1999, she was 15 years old. She was then turned 16 in the episode "I Never Met the Dead Man" (she got her drivers license) and remained that age throughout the show's initial run. She officially turned 17 in the episode "Peter's Two Dads." Meg was originally the sweet teenage daughter who usually took the blame for the terrible things done by members of her family. But over the years, the writers stripped Meg down to a desperate teenager who is hardly noticed by her family. (For example, in an earlier episode, Peter tries a anger management technique by writing letters and not sending them (Meg's said, "Meg, for the first 4 years of your life, I thought you were a housecat", while Stewie's said "Get Out") This stands in contrast to the later episodes where the family, especially Peter, doesn't care about her or even love her as a part of the family. Out of all the relationships with the rest of the family, Lois, Brian and Chris seem to treat her normally. However, Lois has sometimes been cruel and dismissive towards her daughter. In "Model Misbehavior", when Meg compares Lois' childhood bedroom to her own, Lois notes that they were the same except that Lois' contained many trophies and pictures of friends; Lois nearly dropped Joe to his death during a chase through the sewers in "Breaking Out is Hard to Do" when he asked her to "hold on like I'm your child" and he then quickly added "Not Meg! Not Meg!" after slipping a bit after his previous statement; and after Meg told her mom she loved her during "Peter's Daughter," Lois pointedly did not say anything in response. Even though he gets into arguments with her from time to time, Chris usually goes to Meg for advice (but in "Long John Peter" he says that she sucks), and Lois acts more sociable to her. Peter is usually the one who bears a great animosity towards her: berating her, hitting her while once on steroids, etc (in contrast to his usual hostile behaviour, however, Peter once tried to seduce Luke Perry in order to protect Meg from a libel suit, going so far as to state he "would take a bullet for Meg" ("The Story on Page One") ). Stewie enjoys taunting Meg about several topics of her supposed "ugliness", her virginity, and inability to keep a boyfriend, but she rarely seems to notice his comments, which may be part of the show's canon where Meg is not able to hear/interpret Stewie's speech. Brian does not seem to join in the other's frequent "Meg-bashing," although he is prone to ignoring her and coldly shot down her attempt to congratulate his recent writing award. Appearance Meg is relatively unremarkable in appearance, sporting shoulder-length brown hair, virtually short arms, lack of curves and nearly always wearing a beanie-like hat (or, as Stewie calls it, a "hideous skullcap"). She wears the cap under her yellow top hat in the show's opening dance number. She has been seen without her hat on in a handful of episodes for extremely small periods of time). However, in one full episode, she is seen without her beanie on, as she is in pajamas for most of it ("Untitled Griffin Family History"). She is 4 feet 11 inches. She appears to have inherited the shape of her nose and head from her mother, and her brown hair and myopia from her father. In one episode, an employee at a carnival guesses her weight as being "a lot". There are several comments aimed at her weight in various episodes, though her girth may be due to her height, as she is the same weight as her mother. Her plain look is often a topic of humor for the show; characters on the show act as though she were horrifically ugly. In "Don't Make Me Over", two people drench themselves in gasoline, set themselves on fire, and throw themselves out a window upon seeing Meg. In another episode, a young man fired a nail gun into his own stomach in order to avoid a date with her. Also in the episode "Barely Legal", Meg's "backup" date, Jimmy, says he has to attend his little brother's funeral after briefly closing his front door and promptly shooting his little brother. Her ugliness may also be a source of her unpopularity. Meg was once held hostage by three burglars who mistook her for a male; later in that episode she asked one of the robbers if they were going to "have their way" with her. They refused and she got angry, shouting at them to have sex with her. They then filed a sexual harassment suit against her, which went ignored by Peter, who thought she was going to a dance. In the episode "Prick Up Your Ears", Meg took an abstinence vow with her new boyfriend up until the end of the episode, where after seeing her nude, he dumped her. Another brief boyfriend of hers, nudist Jeff Campbell ("From Method to Madness") had no objections to her looks at all. In the episode "Long John Peter", Chris lifts Meg's top up, exposing her bra, as a means to make Brian throw up as an excuse to take him to the vet. Meg once received a makeover, drastically increasing her sexual appeal in the eyes of characters in the show. It was during this brief period when Meg, a popular singer at the time, lost her virginity to Saturday Night Live comedian Jimmy Fallon as part of an elaborate cold open sketch. In court, Brian said that her real father is Stan Thompson. Whether this is meant as an episode-only joke or part of the character history that has never been established. Social life Meg desperately tries to be part of the cool crowd, and is coldly rebuffed. Eager for acceptance, she is shown in two stories unwittingly recruited by a religious cult, and accepting a mistaken invitation to join her school's Lesbian Alliance. However, in some episodes Meg is depicted with a bunch of girls (in a slumber party, and gossiping about boys ); in later episodes these girls are characterized as dateless losers like Meg. Dating Meg is so unpopular in high school that a student in shop class fires a nail gun into his own stomach in order to avoid a date with her. And another murdering his own brother to have an excuse not to go to prom with her the following night. However, she is sought by pimply nerd Neil Goldman, and perverted neighbor Glenn Quagmire has shown an interest, mostly due to his very broad standards, asking if she has reached the age of consent. In several episodes she is shown dating, including stories with characters Mayor Adam West and nudist Jeff Campbell, and she loses her virginity on live television to Saturday Night Live host Jimmy Fallon after having a drastic make over. Early in the series she had a crush on Kevin Swanson, who seemed to enjoy her company (in Da Boom he asked her to Quagmire's New Year's party, in Holy Crap he was mentioned as holding her hand on the walk home from school). In other episodes she is portrayed as chronically incapable of finding a boyfriend. For her Junior Prom she accepts a pity date from Brian, the family dog. In the episode "Peter's Daughter" Meg falls in love with a med-student named Michael Milano after coming out of a short coma (caused by Peter). Meg soon then announces that she is pregnant by Michael and the two get engaged (he actually proposes to her). After finding out that she isn't actually pregnant, Meg tells Michael the truth hoping that he'll stay; however, Michael leaves Meg at the altar. Family life Meg is the oldest child in the Griffin family, and the least favorite. The Griffins are shown avoiding her company, disparaging her in person, gathering in her bedroom to read her diary for laughs, Peter reminds Lois "We agreed that if we could only save two, we'd leave Meg!", even shooting her ("Peter's Daughter") but despite this he also once was going to say 'I love you' in an episode and in "Road to Rupert" he stated they were 'secret best friends' before throwing lemonade in her face, saying he would have to continue to treat her badly in public in order to maintain his reputation. When the family tries an anger management technique of writing letters and not sending them, Meg finds Peter's letter to her, which says "Dear Meg, for the first four years of your life, I thought that you were a housecat. And in Peter's short story of her birth, they had to go back to get her once they realized they grabbed the afterbirth. In the episode "Stewie Kills Lois" Peter tells guests on a cruise ship about how he and Lois had gone to get an abortion but decided against it when they arrived at the clinic. He then says "2 months later, our daughter Meg was born" - indicating that they had not planned her birth. On Meg's 17th birthday, her mother and father both try to hide from Meg that they don't remember her age. Peter openly states that Meg sucks in the episode "PTV", and Chris says the same thing about her in "Long John Peter." Chris, however, seems to have more of a typical brother-sister relationship with Meg, and even once threatened to quit his job if his Boss didn't re-hire Meg. The neighbors also openly dislike Meg. Joe encourages Lois to keep him from falling down a giant sewer pipe by telling her "pretend I'm your child"; when Lois' grip slips a little, Joe yells "Not Meg! Not Meg!" This may have more to do with Joe's perception that Lois doesn't like Meg than with Joe's feelings about her; in another episode, Meg expresses her love for her mom, but Lois pointedly does not respond to this. Cleveland comments to Peter "Meg is my least favorite of your children." Dangerous behavior Meg is often shown as emotionally fragile or disturbed. One episode shows Meg "dating" a corpse or laughing tearfully while describing imaginary gifts from her boyfriend "Prince William. Later in the series, Meg is charged for forcing herself upon a group of would-be captors and grows violently obsessed with Brian after a drunken kiss at the Junior Prom (in the same episode, Meg threatens to commit suicide when nobody at school would be her date to the prom; in a different episode, Meg tells her parents that she's going upstairs to eat a whole bag of peanuts. When her parents stare at her blankly, she cries, "I'm allergic to peanuts!"). Meg also speaks of habitually cutting herself and throwing up after meals. Meg's dangerous behavior, however obvious, is rarely noticed by her parents even when stated. Such as in the episode "Sibling Rivalry" after Lois had her fat removed she states to Meg, that eating to solve ones problems is the wrong thing to do, apparently referencing that she's somewhat fat. In this Meg replies, "I don't eat to solve my problems, I cut myself." Peter also doesn't pay attention when she loses her temper and assaults a man who crashed into the back of the car while driving him, Cleveland, Joe and Quagmire around when they have been drinking in Road to Rupert. He exclaims that her actions were "awesome" and this leads to her engaging in other erratic behaviour to impress him. Voice Actresses Cree Summer was originally supposed to voice Meg, but Seth MacFarlane didn't like the idea of an African-American voicing her. When Seth made the original pilot, Rachael MacFarlane provided her voice for Meg. When the series spawned off, Lacey Chabert was hired to do the role. However, she left after the show's first season (though some aired out of order and became season 2 episodes) and due to contract reasons, she could not be credited for her work. Since then, Mila Kunis has voiced Meg, though there have been some substitues, like Debi Derryberry and Tara Strong, who voice her when she had a singing part. After her sex change, (in Stu & Stewie's Excellent Adventure) she was voiced by [[]]. Fan Reaction Fans have noticed that ever since the show's return to TV, the other characters on the show have become more developed in comparison to Meg. Seth MacFarlane states that Meg is intended to be the least popular character. He admitted that the reason she is the butt of many jokes is that it is hard for the show's writers to get into the head of a teenager. A rare moment she was considered otherwise was after getting a makeover in Season Four, she was very attractive. Relatives Main Artcle: List of Griffin and Pewterschmidt ancestors *Peter Griffin (father) *Lois Griffin (mother) *Stewie Griffin (brother) *Chris Griffin (brother) *Mickey McFinnigan (paternal grandfather) *Thelma Griffin (paternal grandmother) *Francis Griffin (step-grandfather) *Carter Pewterschmidt (maternal grandfather) *Barbara Pewterschmidt (maternal grandmother) Griffin, Meg Griffin, Meg